I just recently got my hands on a new (to me) 8 core mac pro. Until now, I have been using final cut pro X on a 24 inch imac. Well my mac pro presently doens't have a OpenCL compatible graphics card so while i'm saving some more cash for my card of choice, I decided to dust off iMovie and give it another whirl. Man iMovie is just plain clunky after you have gotten used to final cut. I'm no pro editor but the money for my new graphics card cant come fast enough. When imovie 9 was new(and then 11) I bragged to anyone who would listen how slick iLife was and it was totally worth ditching windows for. I still stand by that statement, buy after experiencing Final cut pro X I can't go back to iMovie. I'm nobody's pro editor and half the stuff Final cut Pro can do I will never need, but the stuff I do need is so much better than with iMovie. I have been spoiled by being able to get strait to work with out having to wait for complete file to import. Trying to figure out which clip I want to use is dirt simple with the audition function. Then again we are comparing a 300 dollar piece of software to one that I got free with my first mac. It is insanely expensive (some where is one those old school cats that remembers how muc final cut studio used to cost who is laughing at me), but just like a mac pro, totally worth the money spent.

Don't shout to loud. Many people would disagree with your statement. I use FCP-X and like you "Love It". Don't invest too much yet i hear vibes that FCP-X will have an update later this year with the new MAC.
Even iMovie is a wonderful platform for learning.
Always remember it is not the software you got, it is the material you feed it.

I was die hard FCP until X came out, then I made the jump to Adobe Premiere and haven't regretted it one bit.

I have honestly never tried Adobe Premier Pro but have seen the end results. I can certainly understand why people speak highly of it. We all have our preferred tools but at 800.00 Premiere Pro is one that is currently out of my financial reach. Who knows one day I may be able to afford to try it for myself. Until then, I'll keep chug'n along with old faithful

I have honestly never tried Adobe Premier Pro but have seen the end results. I can certainly understand why people speak highly of it. We all have our preferred tools but at 800.00 Premiere Pro is one that is currently out of my financial reach. Who knows one day I may be able to afford to try it for myself. Until then, I'll keep chug'n along with old faithful

Download the free trial on Adobe's website. At least you can get a feel of what it's like for 30 days.

Download the free trial on Adobe's website. At least you can get a feel of what it's like for 30 days.

"To darthraige you listen, save you it can!"

Sorry. Couldn't resist the Star Wars pun.

Final Cut Pro Studio 3 (w/Final Cut Pro 7) was the pinnacle of Apple's editing decadence. I work in the business. If you want to pursue a career in editing, leave Final Cut Pro X behind. Many houses I have worked for and seen have left Apple and have switched back to either Adobe or Avid.

Final Cut Pro X is a cute toy. It is fun to learn and play with, but it is not for professionals. That is the direction Apple took. If that is the target audience Apple seeks, and if that makes you happy, then stick with it. There is nothing wrong with it. It's just not the path you should take if you choose to go anywhere with it.

Keep an eye out. Sometimes Adobe will run a 50% off promo for Final Cut users. If they run this promo again I'll post it here.

So tiered of people dismissing FCPX as a toy. Do you have any idea of how powerful an editing software it has become ?
It still lacks in some areas, but with the short intervals of updates it has had, I'm pretty sure it will cover most bases in the not to distant future.
Heck, I even edit my 5K Red Epic R3D files natively and have access to a lot of the meta data from within FCPX.

Final Cut Pro Studio 3 (w/Final Cut Pro 7) was the pinnacle of Apple's editing decadence. I work in the business. If you want to pursue a career in editing, leave Final Cut Pro X behind. Many houses I have worked for and seen have left Apple and have switched back to either Adobe or Avid.

Final Cut Pro X is a cute toy. It is fun to learn and play with, but it is not for professionals. That is the direction Apple took. If that is the target audience Apple seeks, and if that makes you happy, then stick with it. There is nothing wrong with it. It's just not the path you should take if you choose to go anywhere with it.

Keep an eye out. Sometimes Adobe will run a 50% off promo for Final Cut users. If they run this promo again I'll post it here.

Why are we all trying to score points with different software. If it works for you then be "HAPPY". Many cant afford expensive software for a hobby. Yes, the professional people who make a living from editing know what is best. FCP-X may be a toy for them but us amateur love the simplicity and the end product is good.
If we all edited a 5 minute video on different software, what would be best?.
None only the format of how you edited the piece of video.

Adobe has gone subscription only w/their software so I don't think we'll see anymore 'switcher' discounts.

I'm not sure but I believe that this is an attempt to at least curb piracy. If I remember correctly, Adobe's media creation tools are amount the most pirated software applications in the world. In some middle eastern countries at one time you could actually walk into a "legitimate" shop and buy a pirated copy of their master collection complete with fake(read copied) manuals and key generators right on the disc. The worst part is the store owners would try to tell customers they were buying a legit license. During my military travels back in the day, my eyes got opened real wide.

I have honestly never tried Adobe Premier Pro but have seen the end results. I can certainly understand why people speak highly of it. We all have our preferred tools but at 800.00 Premiere Pro is one that is currently out of my financial reach. Who knows one day I may be able to afford to try it for myself. Until then, I'll keep chug'n along with old faithful

And remember with Adobe's new subscription software system that your cost foe Premier will most likely rise.

Final Cut Pro X is a cute toy. It is fun to learn and play with, but it is not for professionals

Not quite a toy. Several tv series are cut using FCP X. The TV show "George to the rescue" recently won an emmy award...The most amazing thing about it everything was done in Final Cut Pro X. Nothing was exported until the final render...from audio to colorizing was done using this software.

Not quite a toy. Several tv series are cut using FCP X. The TV show "George to the rescue" recently won an emmy award...The most amazing thing about it everything was done in Final Cut Pro X. Nothing was exported until the final render...from audio to colorizing was done using this software.

+1, in fact +4 in my team. Been using Non-linear in a broadcast environment since it was invented and tape before that and film before that. I think I'm a professional, of many years standing.

Such a load a bull here from people who have not one molecule of real experience. There are many, many broadcast "shows", docs, dramas, ads, spots, soaps and whatever you can imagine that have been assembled using FCP X. I have personally produced 12 this past year.....

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Long time wrinkly lurker.... Apples since 1970 something.

I have been an avid user of FCP7 for my video editing and Aperture for my photo editing. When FCPX dropped, trying to transition was like trying to transition to Lightroom. Just a little to unfamiliar and wonky for me to putz around in while I should be getting work done.

I ended up switching to Premiere. I still prefer Aperture to Lightroom though!!

Final Cut Pro X is a cute toy. It is fun to learn and play with, but it is not for professionals.

This isn't true.

I am a professional. Not an amateur. Though I don't work for a production house, I'm freelance, as well as working for a company where I produce videos on a regular basis. And I exclusively use FCPX and Motion. And I'm more efficient with FCPX that I ever was with FCP 7 or Premiere/After Effects.

So tiered of people dismissing FCPX as a toy. Do you have any idea of how powerful an editing software it has become ?
It still lacks in some areas, but with the short intervals of updates it has had, I'm pretty sure it will cover most bases in the not to distant future.
Heck, I even edit my 5K Red Epic R3D files natively and have access to a lot of the meta data from within FCPX.

Clearly there are some benighted amateurs out there who haven't a clue about editing. My son is a busy and successful professional editor (movies, documentaries, TV series, commercials) who keeps his hand in with ALL editing software -- Adobe, Avid, FCP -- because any professional should understand all the tools available to him or her.

When FCPX first came out, he shunned it because of all the bugs, but as Apple continued to debug it he kept trying it and it is now at a point where (he has told me) using FCPX is a no-brainer. It (together with third-party add-ons) has all the power and options anyone could ever need, it is stable, and -- the clincher -- it has drastically streamlined his workflow, making him far more efficient and profitable.

I am a rank amateur, but I undertook a small video project recently. Shot the footage myself, and used FCPX to edit some 4 hours of footage down to 9 minutes. Then my son reduced it to 4 minutes, and in the process took care of some of the more glaring problems. To me, the result, which you can see at , was fabulous, though I suspect he would rather not have his name associated with it -- he probably would not have touched it with a barge pole for anyone else but me, since the raw footage was so bad.

To me, the amazing thing about FCPX is that both a total pro like my son AND a rank amateur like myself can BOTH get tremendous value out of FCPX. Those who dismiss it as a toy are sadly under-informed.

But keep in mind, in some studios, including the one I work in, FCPX isnt going to fit.

When it comes to sharing projects, XML exchanges, opening legacy projects, working with assistants and so on, FCPX doesnt fit in our workflow.

I can speak for most of the editing facilities in the Detroit area by saying a standard NLE like Avid, Premiere and even FCP7 works well, and trying to push or shift the staff to work on FCPX is down right impossible.

I've tooled around in it and it seems kida cool, but when you pass off huge 900gb+ project from studio to studio, interjecting FCPX is almost suicidal, unless its a self contained project that does not need to be shared internally, or externally.

i love it as well - right now i'm using it for professional broadcast, editing (and filming) two pieces a day.

it's a bit wonky on our production-laptop (new 15" non retina mbp with ssd) crashes frequently and also got a weird bug i've never experienced on any other machine, where the color correction on some clips is totally off after a crash. but despite crashes and weird color-bug, i can still edit and deliver faster than i could on any other NLE before.

i can see the things that probably wouldn't work too well in a professional, multi-user-film-production-workflow, but for ENG-style editing it's already pretty good.